


A Hero's Tale

by navaan



Category: Harry Potter - Fandom
Genre: F/M, HP: Epilogue Compliant, Post-Canon
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2012-09-15
Updated: 2012-09-15
Packaged: 2017-11-14 07:23:35
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,396
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/512769
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/navaan/pseuds/navaan
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>The arrival of a new book seems to upset everyone but Harry.</p>
            </blockquote>





	A Hero's Tale

**Author's Note:**

> I thought I had posted this ages ago, but somehow it seems I never did. *sigh* What's wrong with my head? A big thank you to my beta reader [](http://proxypromethea.livejournal.com/profile)[](http://proxypromethea.livejournal.com/)**proxypromethea**. Even your smallest insights are really, really helpful! Thank you! (All remaining mistakes are mine, of course. :P)

The book arrives with a morning owl, landing right on their breakfast table. Harry makes no move to put the _Daily Prophet_ away and pick it up. Instead keeps on reading, while Ginny gives the Owl a treat and puts the wrapped package on the counter where he has to see it.

A few minutes later he is still not finished reading his paper, but he can feel Ginny watching him a little impatiently. “Aren’t you going to open it?”

“You can open it if you want to,” he says serenely, pointedly not looking up from the Prophet. “I know myself well enough without reading that, I think.”

He can feel her watching him for a moment longer. “You know that’s not what this is about, right?”

“Right.”

She tears the package open and it takes her a moment to settle down and he hears the sound of pages being turned. Then a derisive snort, when she really starts reading. “I think I’ll quiz you on your happy childhood tonight,” she quips.

“Sounds nice, dear.”

***

He has set aside his paper by the time Ginny opens the front door for Hermione and Ron. Harry is careful to ignore the book lying on the kitchen table. Ron enters the kitchen first and gives him a slightly unsure smile. “Hey, mate.”

“Hey, Ron. How have you been?” he asks, pouring himself a cup of coffee. If the uncomfortable look in Ron's eyes is anything to go by, he’s sure he’ll need it. When Hermione storms into the kitchen and hugs him like she hasn’t seen him in a long time, he nearly drops the cup in surprise.

“How are you holding up?” she asks, muffled against his chest. She seems nervous and a little breathless and he is reminded of times her voice had this particularly high pinch of slight panic in it before. It’s an unwelcome memory and he really doesn’t think this kind of panic has a place in their wonderful, bright kitchen.

“Ehm...?” He sets down his cup down on the kitchen counter to return her embrace. “I’m okay. Shouldn’t I be?” He throws Ron a look across her shoulder. His friend shrugs and gives him a slightly exasperated smile.

“He hasn’t even looked at it yet,” Ginny explains from a place outside the kitchen where he can’t see her.

Hermione is finally letting go of him and peers up at his face frowning, scrunching up her nose like she always does when she’s worried he’s about to do something stupid. “You haven’t...?”

Ron smiles. “Sounds like the smart thing to do if you ask me. It’s rubbish anyway.”

“My thoughts exactly,” Harry says and he just _knows_ that he is grinning like a maniac. He feels even better when Ron’s face splits up in an answering grin. Ginny appears beside her brother in the doorway, punching his arms lightly, then looking from one to the other with a sigh and finally back at where Hermione is standing, strangely quiet now.

Harry reaches for his coffee and takes a sip. “You didn’t just come over to discuss the book, right?”

Hermione clears her throat. “Actually... Well, I still think you should take a look at it, even if I understand why you wouldn’t want to read it. There will be no easy way to fight this, of course.”

“I’m not going to fight this, Hermione.” With a wave of his wand he conjures cups from their kitchen cupboard and asks cheerfully: “Coffee? Tea?”

“Tea for me. Thanks, mate.” Ron is glad to help him out when it comes to changing the topic of this conversation, because they all know that this is Harry’s way to put an end to this discussion. Ginny just shakes her head at him slightly, giving him a quizzical smile.

“Men,” Hermione says to her, rolling her eyes in exasperation.

***

It’s a wonderful day after that and Harry is still glad and thankful for every minute he and his friends can spend together. It’s not exactly like it was back in school, not as intense as it was when they were on the run, it just _is_. It’s family. It’s what life should be like.

When he enters the living room, Ginny is sitting on the sofa, legs propped up for comfort, reading the book again. Her face is scrunched up in a way that tells him she doesn't like what she's reading. He doesn't comment on it, instead sits down and pulls her feet into his lap. She looks up and smiles at him with something between love and sadness in her eyes.

“Hermione is right, Harry,“ she says softly, „you should read this. You should know what people will think about you.“

“Darling, I _know_ what people think about me. I'm an expert when it comes to all the stories about me. By now I'm kind of used to it, really.“ He smiles at her and then ruefully looks at his own moving face smiling at him from the cover of _The Harry Potter Story._. _They went out of their way to pick a photograph that makes me look like a silly boy,_ he thinks wryly.

“This guy goes on and on about your happy childhood with your muggle relatives who loved you so very, very much and gave you everything a child could ever have wanted! The Dursleys, Harry! The Dursleys who kept you in the cupboard under the stairs, for heaven's sake!” It is plain to see how much Ginny resents this false account of his childhood, because she knows how his relatives had barely been able to stand the sight of him.

“Well, that's good,” he comments mildly.

“Harry! How can this be good? This is a collection of made up stories about your wonderful life...”

He pats his wife's leg and sighs. “Ginny, my life is great now, so I don't care. Besides, would you prefer a printed account of how horrible my mother's muggle family was to me when I was a child? Would you give the muggle haters another reason to hate all the muggles out there? Why not give these people their fairytale stories and let them be.”

She stares at him for a moment, stunned and still unhappy, but realization is dawning in her beautiful eyes. “You've read this before, haven't you?”

“Of course. I read the first draft before I gave them permission to work on this stupid biography thing. I had to make sure that they at least got some parts right. I had no intention of allowing my biography to slander the memory of Dumbeldore, or Sirius, or Lupin and Tonks... or even Snape...”

Ginny stares at him wide eyed. „But this isn't what really happened. This makes it all look easy and...“

“The most I could do without giving these people an outright interview was to ask them to get a check on certain details. Everything else? It's not like it hasn't been said before, is it?” He chuckles without real humour.

“And you're okay with this?” She is holding up the book as if he hasn't seen it yet.

“Yeah. Better _that_ than the one by Rita Skeeter.”

Ginny frowns, still not convinced. “One day our kids will learn this _story_ in school...”

“No, they'll hear it from us. It'll be a good lesson about the media right along with everything else, don't you think?” This time he is laughing, because this is a happy thought.

Family. When it comes down to it, that is the one thing that is important.

“If you're okay with this,” Ginny says softly, “then I think I can be, too.” They share a smile and Harry reaches for her hand, squeezing her fingers lightly in thanks. “But explaining this to Hermione? That you'll do on your own, Mister.”

“I will. When she has calmed down. She's smart. She'll figure it out on her own in another day or two.”

He reaches for the book and throws it on the floor. Ginny looks after it, a little startled. Harry takes her even more by surprise by kissing her urgently. “Life is so good,” he whispers and it seems that is good enough for Ginny to forget all about the history of the hero who saved the wizarding world. After all, she has the real Harry Potter right in front of her.


End file.
